I haven't seen any Destro in the top guilds' kill videos, apart from one from Blood Legion on Primordius.
Sparkuggz seemed to be interested in Destro for Horridon but looks like he stayed Aff, don't know why.

Nafyi from Blood Legion plays Destro on almost every fight and outdeals every other specc.

This thread is meandering in and out of topic, I prefer it either stays on the topic on how well Destro is doing in raids (compared to other classes/specs), or I'll just close it and redirect to the main Destro sticky if it stays off topic. (I would have merged it in the first place if this thread hadn't been a bit too big when I found it + seemed to have a seperate topic)

Looking at your gear and raid experience, it doesn't matter what spec you play. All are viable, and frankly for your content level any DPS spec in the game is viable. Play what you like. Given the recent buffs, Destro is very strong at lower gear levels.

If you're interested in how Destro is doing at high end progression (again, something that doesn't relate in any way to your situation), it seems to be doing fine if not very well. One of the reasons I think that many progression locks stuck with Affliction is that it was still strong, it got nerfed just before HM's opened up, and I think a lot of these players didn't have time to relearn/rekeybind/etc a new spec. Remember that they have to be able to not only switch specs, but switch entire toons as necessary. Nobody quite figured out how strong Destro was until 5.2 went live (they also hadn't fixed SB granting 2 embers until after the patch went live). Demonology was talked about on the PTR as being the strongest so I think some locks made the switch there from Affliction (and again, Demo was nerfed just before progression unlocked as well).

So that's my 2 cents of why you see the progression locks using the specs they are using right now. I think this is going to change as we see the upper (but not bleeding edge) and mid tier guilds advance throughout their progression. Then you'll start seeing more Destro locks. Of course, if the T15H sims are accurate (and I'm not sure they are yet), then you'll see people gravitating towards Affliction again at the end of the tier.

anything that isnt effective dps is padding, no matter how you look at it, cleaving incinerates or choas bolts on a boss like mageara is padding, but single target dps each head is effective dps. for example, a boss like horridon, you can dps anything you want and it wont be padding since everything has to die anyway, tortos and council is the same, but on mageara it will be nothing but padding since any dmg you do on anything other than your main target is pointless as the heads gets healed up when one head dies.

also cleaving incinerate will boost your dps, but not your single target dps, since the dmg you're doing is spread over 2+ targets, so it can per definition not be considered single target dps, but i get your point.

No, you're just outright wrong here - cleaving incinerates isn't padding, it's effectively gaining double the emberbits per incinerate you would otherwise, at the expense of a GCD.

This in turn results in a higher ember generation rate, allowing you to cast more chaosbolts.

More chaosbolts = more single target dps.

This is not padding in any way shape fashion or form, much like dropping RoF/keeping incinerate on both heads, it's a single target, effective DPS increase.

No, you're just outright wrong here - cleaving incinerates isn't padding, it's effectively gaining double the emberbits per incinerate you would otherwise, at the expense of a GCD.

This in turn results in a higher ember generation rate, allowing you to cast more chaosbolts.

More chaosbolts = more single target dps.

This is not padding in any way shape fashion or form, much like dropping RoF/keeping incinerate on both heads, it's a single target, effective DPS increase.

i agree the cleaving in itself isnt padding but the dmg from the cleaving is nothing but padding, well half of it atleast, the additional incinerate you use to get those embers is far more dmg than the extra chaosbolt you would get out of it making it padding. you might not do it for the padding but it will still be padding. if those "ember generating" incinerates wouldnt show up on meters, then you would be 100% corect.

i agree the cleaving in itself isnt padding but the dmg from the cleaving is nothing but padding, well half of it atleast, the additional incinerate you use to get those embers is far more dmg than the extra chaosbolt you would get out of it making it padding. you might not do it for the padding but it will still be padding. if those "ember generating" incinerates wouldnt show up on meters, then you would be 100% corect.

Though it is slightly ott for anyone to suggest that you should not do anything like that, simply because the method of gaining extra damage on the main target happens to also deal ~equal damage to a target that has no benefit to the fight.

As far helping the team kill the boss goes -
Upside: You gain up to 6 emberbits extra every 25 seconds
Downside: it costs 0.5 second GCD

People butthurt that you meter pad slightly every 25 seconds has no impact on how well the fight goes.

Originally Posted by Crym

Spoiler: The reason Garrosh is defeated is because, just when he's being attacked, Malchezaar pops out of a portal, yells "yoink!", and takes his weapon away.

Destro is downright ridiculous atm. and severely overpowered, compared to anything else in the game, speaking from a ToT HC PoV. Last night on Tortos HC, he ended up on 350k+ dps as the fight ended. Just a joy to play a mage in comparison and get sat on pretty much every boss onwards...

I'm sorry, but the only fight where Mages have been sat for us this tier is Megeara. Seeing Mages burst 500k on Dark Animus and 350k on everything else is just lol. Complaining that your AoE is weak when your cleave and single target is INSANE is just silly.

Destruction has strong sustained AoE, but it still isn't as bursty as Demo (Or Elemental, or even Fire), and it's single target is "Decent".

I'm sorry, but the only fight where Mages have been sat for us this tier is Megeara. Seeing Mages burst 500k on Dark Animus and 350k on everything else is just lol. Complaining that your AoE is weak when your cleave and single target is INSANE is just silly.

Destruction has strong sustained AoE, but it still isn't as bursty as Demo (Or Elemental, or even Fire), and it's single target is "Decent".

Well, not to mention as we talked about, it's PISS annoying to play Destro atm.

How is it annoying to play Destro atm ? I never enjoyed this much playing in 3 years, and the DPS is awesome. We really aren't in a position to whine honestly.

The only thing that annoys me about Destro is Fire and Brimstone. That is such a clunky mechanic for sustained AoE, it seriously needs a redesign. Should be like a stance that last until you're out of embers or something, which would never happen during large amounts of AoE.